[chas]

ROUNDUP: SEEING THE OLD YEAR OUT

Just played a great four player (six hour) game of Firefly The Game yesterday. George (GWEK on bgg) came over from NJ for the first time. He's about the most active poster on bgg about this game, and has presented many fan variants, one of which, Local Color, I've printed out but not used yet. He'll be adding 12 new cards to it soon. And his pal Dan came in from Manhattan, so I met two new gaming friends!

Sherman Davies and I hosted here. We used all of the expansions through Blue Sun. It was fun to play the old King of All Londinium scenario from the base game for the first time. Although George won handily, it was a great game, and we got to try out lots of stuff we hand't really looked at before from Crew to Gear to playing strategies. George got all three goals to end the game, when the rest of us had none, and he won just before I would have badly disabled his play for a bit with a second Showdown using 'Sash's Cannon!' George dismissed his wanted crew member, but I picked up the same Niska Piracy Job I'd discarded on the first turn of the game (since we were in the neighborhood), and so would have had an excuse to attack him once more.

Dan hadn't played before, but had looked at the rules and learned fast; I'd say he was in second place behind George, with SD right behind, and me beat down to just harassing George at the end. A 'Gentleman's Game' throughout with player manners and advice for the newbie all around; quite a contrast to the grittiness of Josh Whedon's 'Verse! We did some Bounty Hunting and Bounty Jumping, but no Piracy, and never entered Rim Space, although lots of Reavers came out of it! At one point after the Alliance Cruiser moved, a new Most Wanted Cortex Update put three of us at risk carrying wanted crew at once, which triggered off some direct player interaction, mostly against George, by now the clear front runner.

Then we and our guests had a companionable late dinner at the local diner. They left, while Sherm and I went on to play out my first game of Ars Victor with a live opponent. He had beaten Taeblewalker once, and now got me. It was our first time with both factions on the board at the same time: The Empire of Man and the Ancient Hedgemony. I played the latter and SD our first 'mixed' army. Just as I was about to go for it from behind at the end, my cards totally betrayed me, and I couldn't activate the two units I needed. Curses, foiled again.

Taeblewalker is coming back from Florida today, and Kolakoski is planning to host our monthy Scape game in January when he returns to his Secret Island Base soon, so the NYG4 will be back in action in the New Year. If you're going to be in NYC in January, give us a shout out and come join us.

Thanks to Sherm for helping me order the new Conan coins online as an add-on to my first Kickstarter project: Age of Conan: Adventures In Hyperboria.

New Games/Expansions from Sept.-Dec. 2015 as the year goes out:

Star Trek Fleet Captains: Dominion
Quartermaster General
Firefly: Blue Sun
Cyclades: Titans
Commands & Colors Napoleonics: The Prussian Army
Twilight Struggle (yet unplayed)
Ars Victor

New Games Coming up in 2015:

Age Of Conan: Adventures In Hyperboria
Kemet: Ta Seti
Mare Nostrum (2.0)
Quartermaster General: Expansion
Firefly the Game: Expansion(s)?
C&C Napolenics: Expansion(s)?

Other New Game Dates Coming Up In January

Memoir 44: D-Day Landings--The British Beaches (6 Player)

Happy Gaming New Year to all!